Keeping milk goats--mostly barn and milking related question

[forestrymom]

We have 2 does and a buck. We have a large mostly enclosed shed that dh built a year ago, and we were planning on building a leanto on the side of it for the goats this spring, but it didn't happen. It is going to happen. Right now, the boy is adjacent to the girls, with a chainlink, 6ft fence to keep them separated. He has a dogloo for sleeping in at night and they share a feeder. We haven't been milking, so I have no idea if this will be enough distance for him to not make their milk smelly. The girls have shelter inside the shed, with a very nice little house that is free from the cold, but doesn't have separate stalls, really. We had to make a makeshift stall to separate them, though, because our new mama doesn't like the other goat right now. When we get our barn completed, our boy and his son (whethered) will get the existing goat shed.

My question is really--where do you milk? And if you could have a small barn, but you had a nice shed for the keeping of hay and a nice place for your boy goat, so the barn would only house the girls, what would you "require"? And talk to me about keeping the buck close to the girls, at least for now.

Thanks!

[missythemom3]

Well I am not too experienced with bucks but I do know that their scent can taint the milk so I would not milk near them. I milk my goats in an area of my garage that is seperate from the rest of it. When I had the buck staying here (we borrowed one for breeding and had him for two months) we had him in a stall right next to the does but there was a high wall seperating them but they could still see each other and share the feeder. Bucks can have the tendency to jump the pen that seperates them from their beloved girls so that is why the wall was a bit on the higher side.They did run together during the day but we were in the process of breeding the does so it served a purpose then. I don't have much other info right now but I would not milk near the buck if at all possible even if your buck isn't overly smelly,it can still cause an off flavor to the milk. I hope someone has more info for you than I did and I wish you the best with your goats.